MONDAY EVENTS

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Monday, August 6

One of six major ethnic groups which intermingled to form what are now the Scots were the Gallwegians (Vikings). To explore our Viking roots, we intend to spend a full day at the Islendigadagurinn (Icelandic Festival) in the town of Gimli, heart of the New Iceland settlement on the shores of Lake Winnipeg … about 100 km north of Winnipeg, including:

Noonish: informal fresh Lake Winnipeg pickerel fry with all the trimmings at Jane & Walter's family-style restaurant in Sandy Hook, a summer beach resort, … followed by free time in the vendor’s market and the unique old Torgeson’s country general store

2:00 tour the authentic Viking village on the lakeshore, complete with re-enactors who literally camp there on a hilltop for the weekend festival

5:00 Group transportation to Petersfield (Métis community) area for Western BBQ Beef dinner ... complete with salad, rolls, potatoes, Laurie Hunt's special seasoned cream corn, cake and coffee ... at Hunt's Country Roadhouse (BadAss Jack's) and Museum, which is chock full of fascinating antiques and country collectibles. Then Alex Lamoureux (B.C. provincial fiddler in 2008 and 2009) and friend will raise the roof with some real old-style western, Métis and barn dance tunes. We will run our own cash bar at cost.

THE ISLENDIGADAGURINN PARADE

Monday, August 6

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Following a tour of the Parliament Building yesterday and having our brains overwhelmed by the amount of Masonic symbolism, perhaps we should not be surprised to find that the influence of the Freemasonry was strong elsewhere in the province of Manitoba. Yes, the Shriners also came to the Gimli Parade.

A sign on the Khartum Temple float reads: "No Man Stands So Tall as when He Stoops to Help A CHILD."

GIMLI SEAWALL GALLERY

Gimli has a unique seawall with a gallery of paintings representative of the area. At the very end of the wharf is a scientific research vessel. Our bus returned to a spot near an aircraft monument.

The aircraft monument in Gimli was presented by the officers and men of Canadian Forces Base Gimli to commemorate years of friendship and cooperation during operations of the base between 1943 and 1971.

VIKING BATTLE

Individuals of Viking descent gather from all over North America for the Islendigadagurinn (Icelandic Festival) in the town of Gimli every August. They live in tents on the hill and perform choreographed battles every day of the festival.

Andy provided some photos of the Viking Village with both he and Ian getting dressed in Viking costumes before they leave. Most "artisans" confessed that very few items were actually made on the site and most were bought elsewhere.

After our busy morning, we enjoyed an informal fresh Lake Winnipeg pickerel fry with all the trimmings at Jane & Walter's family-style restaurant in Sandy Hook, a summer beach resort.

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Just a moment! There was a boat in the Gimli Parade with a "WWW.FARAHEIM.COM" sign on its hull. I looked it up on the internet. Here's what it said:

Now, over the last several decades, a hint of ancient voyages to the North Arctic and even to the heart of the continent have been discovered. These whispers from the past and the personal connections to those original voyagers are the motivations for a team of explorers to search for Norse presence in North America while taking a personal voyage into their own history.

Their journey will be to “Fara Heim”. In Old Norse, “ađ fara heim” means “going home”. The Fara Heim team will voyage from Manitoba, Canada by sail through across Hudson Bay, through the Arctic and then end with a return to the lands of the original explorers.

Using modern search technologies the team will visit likely sites to search for and record the findings of signs of Norse presence. These sites are being selected using historical data, verbal history, community knowledge and analysis of modern data. The search objective is data collection with a defined search protocol being used to protect all visited sites and artifacts from damage and permanent loss. The data package will be analyzed for evidence of Norse presence with positive results leading to formal archaeological digs.